The invention concerns an incontinence article in the form of pants for receiving body excrements, comprising a front belly section and a rear back section, which are connected to each other at side seam areas on both sides during production to form a belly and back band, which is continuous in the transverse or peripheral hip direction and has a hip opening that is closed in the peripheral hip direction, and a crotch section which has an absorbent body and extends in a longitudinal direction between the belly section and the back section, and is permanently attached to the belly section and to the back section, wherein the crotch section as well as the belly section and the back section define the leg openings of the incontinence article. A three-component incontinence article of this type is disclosed e.g. in WO 2004/052260 A1. In this specific product concept, an H-shaped basic structure of the incontinence article is realized by joining the crotch section, which extends in the longitudinal direction, to the belly section, which extends substantially in the transverse or peripheral hip direction, and to the correspondingly extending back section when these three components are flatly extended. The incontinence article is then modularly designed from the components crotch section, belly section and back section. These components are advantageously initially connected to each other via the crotch section, and preferably after that, the side seam areas of the belly section are connected to those of the back section on both sides. This connection is realized by the manufacturer to obtain the shape of pants. This connection is typically permanent. However, it may also be provided that the pants can be opened, in particular, along a breaking line which may extend, in particular, in the side seam area, e.g. for removing a used incontinence article from a person who is in need of care.
Incontinence articles in the form of pants differ, in principle, from incontinence articles of normal diaper shape that can be opened and closed in that the hip size is generally predetermined and the article can be adjusted to different body sizes by providing a number of different basic sizes that can be elastically stretched. Towards this end, elastification means, in particular, in the form of bands or threads, often called Lycra threads, are generally connected in a prestrained state (stretch-bond method) to chassis materials of the incontinence article, i.e. they are fixed in the prestrained state to the chassis materials e.g. by means of glue. Due to their pretension, these elastification means gather the chassis materials to thereby form crimps. The incontinence article or the elasticised chassis materials of the incontinence article can be elastically stretched again when the incontinence article is applied to the user like pants. Several incontinence articles in the form of pants comprising elasticised chassis materials of this type have been disclosed and are discussed e.g. also in the above-mentioned document WO 2004/052260 A1.
For producing the H-shaped basic structure, i.e. for connecting the crotch section to the belly section and the back section, these components must be joined in such a fashion that all requirements for appropriate use are met in order to prevent the connection between the crotch section and the belly section or back section from being detached under great tensile stress. Large forces may be generated during wear of an incontinence article in the form of pants, e.g. due to the weight of an absorbent element that is loaded with a considerable amount of fluid. Large tensile forces are moreover transferred within the chassis materials by the elastification means that are usually joined to the chassis materials using a stretch-bond method, and also by tensile forces that are transferred by movement of the user. It has thereby turned out that this high tensile stress surprisingly occurs both with mobile users who use the incontinence article substantially as a piece of underwear, and also with bedridden persons who are in need of care and can move only to a very limited degree. The chassis materials of the incontinence article cannot compensate for the tensile stress due to sudden and, in particular, also slow movements. In situations like this, the joining connections of the incontinence article are heavily strained, i.e. in particular between the crotch section and the belly section and between the crotch section and the back section.
If a large amount of, in particular, extensively applied adhesive material is used to produce a stable and permanent tension-proof connection between the crotch section and the belly section and between the crotch section and the back section, the overlapping area between the crotch section and the belly section or back section is disadvantageously stiffened. This is perceived as being unpleasant and can also impair the desired stretchability of the chassis materials in this area, wherein it must be noted at this point that an extensive stretchability is often not desired in this area. It is thereby also problematic that adhesive materials impede the desired product properties.
Departing therefrom, it is the object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned problems, i.e. provide a stable connection between the crotch section and the belly section and between the crotch section and the back section of an incontinence article in the form of pants of this type without impairing the wear comfort or having other negative effects on the functionality of the incontinence article.